Muscle Development and Regeneration

A few minutes with Dr. Mark Mercola

A few minutes with Dr. Mark Mercola

Dr. Mark Mercola directs Sanford-Burnham’s Muscle Development and Regeneration Program and is looking for ways to regenerate damaged heart tissue.

Putting the muscle in muscle stem cells

Putting the muscle in muscle stem cells

Dr. Pier Lorenzo Puri and colleagues are figuring out ways to keep the muscle stem cell pool fresh and ready to regenerate injured or diseased muscle—a therapeutic approach that might one day benefit patients with muscular dystrophy.

Studying muscle development and regeneration

The Muscle Development and Regeneration Program focuses on understanding the cause of and developing therapies for heart and skeletal muscle disorders with emphasis on three areas of research: 1) the molecular basis of congenital heart disease, 2) strategies for regeneration of heart and skeletal muscle cells for treatment of degenerative diseases, and 3) developmental basis and pathogenesis of myopathies, including muscle cell structural anomalies and pathological myocardial hypertrophy.

This program builds on current strengths in mouse transgenic and surgical models of heart disease, including congenital heart disease, research on muscle stem and progenitor cells, and discovery of small molecule and microRNA regulators of muscle development that will be used to develop probes of muscle disease and drugs for therapy. The program’s focus complements the interests of the Cardiovascular Pathobiology Program, which emphasizes adult heart disease, the Development and Aging Program, which focuses on basic developmental biology and aging mechanisms, the Stem Cell and Regeneration Program, which focuses on broad issues of stem cell potency, differentiation and applications in regenerative medicine, and the RNA Biology Program, which is working to understand how the world of non-coding RNAs guides cellular processes in health and disease.

How our research helps improve health

Heart and skeletal muscle disorders contribute to substantial mortality and morbidity not only for adults but also for children and young adults. Researchers in the Muscle Development and Regeneration Program are developing therapies for these diseases.

Research - Children's Health - Muscle Development and Regeneration: How Our Research Helps

Recent Developments

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New muscle research center opens in San Diego

The NIH recently awarded a new grant to establish the San Diego Skeletal Muscle Research Center, which will allow 21 scientists at five different research institutions to combine their expertise and state-of-the-art methods to accelerate research on skeletal muscles and the diseases that affect them.  Read More...

Recent Publications

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Research - Children's Health - Muscle Development and Regeneration: Recent Publications
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